Attachments for vacuum cleaners are well known in the art. Vacuum cleaners are frequently sold with a range of attachments for different cleaning purposes. These attachments are usually fitted onto the end of a wand or hose of an upright or cylinder vacuum cleaner. For example, a vacuum cleaner may be provided with a brush tool for dusting surfaces, a stair tool for cleaning stairs, and a crevice tool for cleaning hard-to-reach areas which are difficult to access with larger attachments.
In order to clean effectively, it is important that a suction opening of an attachment is close to, or in contact with, a surface to be cleaned. Preferably, the whole of the suction opening should be in close proximity to the surface to be cleaned. If there is too great an air gap between the suction opening of the attachment and the surface to be cleaned, less of the air entering the suction opening will have passed across or through the surface to be cleaned. Therefore, less dirt and dust will be picked up and the cleaning performance of the vacuum cleaner will be reduced.
In order to reduce this problem, an attachment for a vacuum cleaner such as a stair tool is often provided with a rotatable connection located between the head of the tool and the connection part of the tool (which connects to the mouth of a wand or hose). The rotatable connection is commonly angled relative to the head or the connection part such that different angular orientations of the head with respect to the wand or hose can be achieved. This allows a user to clean more easily surfaces positioned at different angles.
Another example of an attachment having a rotatable connection is shown in GB 2 320 889. This document discloses a vacuum cleaner brush head assembly which has two suction openings arranged at right angles to one another. Each suction opening is arranged to allow a different cleaning operation to be performed. Rotation of the head relative to a neck opens an air conduit between one of the suction openings and the neck and closes another air conduit between the other of the suction openings and the neck. This means that the user can rotate the head relative to a neck of the assembly in order to select one of the two suction openings depending upon the cleaning operation required.
A disadvantage common to the prior art arrangements described above is that they require some form of rotatable connection in order to operate. A moveable connection requires a user to change manually the position of the head relative to the connection part when the user wishes to clean different surfaces. This is inconvenient for a user. Further, a user may have to handle a dirty and dusty vacuum cleaner accessory head which may be unpleasant, unhygienic and pose a health risk for allergy suffers. Further, movable parts are often more complicated to manufacture than a single, fixed part. Additionally, moving connections are often less reliable than a single fixed part and may be more prone to failure.